Fire alarms are an essential element of safety inside any building. If you’re at home, a place of work or school, it is essential you have a system in place to alert you in the event of a fire emergency. There are two main types of fire alarms. The first type is operated manually after a person detects a fire. The second type sounds automatically, and is usually controlled by smoke detectors. A smoke detector is perhaps the simplest and best way of ensuring fire safety. This is a guide to installing them in your place of residence or work.

Installing smoke detectors/fire alarms

You can buy fire alarm from a variety of retailers in Tunbridge Wells. Once you’ve bought one you can easily install it yourself. These are simple devices which don’t take long at all to install and you don’t need the help of a professional.

Smoke detectors which sound off the fire alarm are best installed on ceilings. That’s because smoke rises and you want a detector higher up to catch the smoke particles and set off the alarm. If you bought a fire alarm in Tunbridge Wells, these should work just the same.

Where to install smoke detectors

Where you place the smoke detector depends on the size of the building and what specific areas are used for. Always remember to never install a smoke detector inside a kitchen or somewhere close to a cooking area. That includes doorways just outside the kitchen as well. This is because kitchens and cooking areas regularly produce lots of smoke and this will set off a sensitive smoke detector. This will quickly become an irritation and is to be avoided.

It’s a good idea to install a smoke detector in a hallway. That means, when it goes off, everyone in adjacent rooms will hear it, rather than requiring a different alarm in every room separately. It’s a good idea to place them just off sleeping areas too. People take longer to respond to alarms when they’re asleep, so it makes sense to place one near a bedroom.

Smoke detector types

There are a number of different types of smoke detectors, but the two main ones are photoelectric and ionisation smoke detectors. Each has its own pros and cons. A photoelectric smoke detector, for example, is good at detecting fires away from the area of the smoke detector as well as when the fire is just smouldering without producing intense flames. An ionisation smoke detector is good at detecting raging flames and fires with heavy smoke. Some smoke detectors also detect levels of carbon monoxide, which is a dangerous by-product of natural gas combustion.